Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) Shares Purchased by Versor Investments LP

Versor Investments LP boosted its position in Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) by 197.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 38,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,500 shares during the quarter. Versor Investments LP’s holdings in Columbia Banking System were worth $1,003,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in COLB. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Columbia Banking System by 812.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,182,655 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $63,295,000 after acquiring an additional 2,833,744 shares during the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC raised its position in Columbia Banking System by 21.4% in the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 4,468,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $86,468,000 after purchasing an additional 788,383 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Columbia Banking System by 2.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,327,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $432,041,000 after purchasing an additional 574,509 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its position in Columbia Banking System by 333.8% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 639,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,711,000 after purchasing an additional 491,742 shares during the period. Finally, Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. purchased a new position in Columbia Banking System in the second quarter valued at about $9,458,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stephens raised their price objective on Columbia Banking System from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Columbia Banking System from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Columbia Banking System from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Columbia Banking System from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.12.

Columbia Banking System Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of Columbia Banking System stock opened at $31.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.64 and a beta of 0.62. Columbia Banking System, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.08 and a fifty-two week high of $31.86. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $26.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.13.

Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.07. Columbia Banking System had a return on equity of 10.13% and a net margin of 16.15%. The company had revenue of $765.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $478.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Columbia Banking System, Inc. will post 2.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Columbia Banking System Company Profile

Columbia Banking System, Inc operates as the holding company of Umpqua Bank that provides banking, private banking, mortgage, and other financial services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business, non-interest bearing checking, interest-bearing checking and savings, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and insured cash sweep and other investment sweep solutions.